Beginning COBOL for Programmers [electronic resource] /
Coughlan, Michael.author.
Beginning COBOL for Programmers is a comprehensive, sophisticated tutorial and modular skills reference on the COBOL programming language for established programmers. This book is for you if you are a developer who would like to—or must—add COBOL to your repertoire. Perhaps you recognize the opportunities presented by the current COBOL skills crisis, or are working in a mission critical enterprise which retains legacy COBOL applications. Whatever your situation, Beginning COBOL for Programmers meets your needs as an established programmer moving to COBOL. Beginning COBOL for Programmers includes comprehensive coverage of ANS 85 COBOL features and techniques, including control structures, condition names, sequential and direct access files, data redefinition, string handling, decimal arithmetic, subprograms, and the report writer. The final chapter includes a substantial introduction to object-oriented COBOL. Benefiting from over one hundred example programs, you’ll receive an extensive introduction to the core and advanced features of the COBOL language and will learn to apply these through comprehensive and varied exercises. If you've inherited some legacy COBOL, you’ll be able to grasp the COBOL idioms, understand the constructs, and recognize what's happening in the code you’re working with. Today’s enterprise application developers will find that COBOL skills open new—or old—doors, and this extensive COBOL reference is the book to help you acquire and develop your COBOL skills.
""Contents at a Glance""; ""Contents""; ""About the Author""; ""About the Technical Reviewer""; ""Acknowledgments""; ""Preface""; ""Chapter 1: Introduction to COBOL""; ""What Is COBOL?""; ""COBOLâ€?s Target Application Domain""; ""COBOLâ€?s Fitness for Its Application Domain""; ""History of COBOL""; ""Beginnings""; ""COBOL Standards""; ""COBOL ANS 68""; ""COBOL ANS 74 (External Subprograms)""; ""COBOL ANS 85 (Structured Programming Constructs)""; ""COBOL ANS 2002 (OO Constructs)""; ""The Argument for COBOL (Why COBOL?)""; ""Dominance of COBOL in Enterprise Computing""
""Danger, Difficulty, and Expense of Replacing Legacy COBOL Applications""""Replacement with a COTS Package""; ""Complete Rewrite""; ""Automatic Language Conversion""; ""Wrapping the Legacy System""; ""Code Renovation""; ""Migration to Commodity Hardware and Software""; ""Shortage of COBOL Programmers: Crisis and Opportunity""; ""COBOL: The Hidden Asset""; ""Advantages of Bespoke Software""; ""Characteristics of COBOL Applications""; ""COBOL Applications Can Be Very Large""; ""COBOL Applications Are Very Long-Lived""; ""COBOL Applications Often Run in Critical Areas of Business""
""COBOL Applications Often Deal with Enormous Volumes of Data""""Characteristics of COBOL""; ""COBOL Is Self-Documenting""; ""COBOL Is Stable""; ""COBOL Is Simple""; ""COBOL Is Nonproprietary""; ""COBOL Is Maintainable""; ""Summary""; ""References""; ""Chapter 2: COBOL Foundation""; ""COBOL Idiosyncrasies""; ""COBOL Syntax Metalanguage""; ""Some Notes on Syntax Diagrams""; ""Example Metalanguage""; ""Divisions""; ""Sections""; ""Paragraphs""; ""Sentences""; ""Statements""; ""Structure of COBOL Programs""; ""The Four Divisions""; ""IDENTIFICATION DIVISION""; ""ENVIRONMENT DIVISION""
""DATA DIVISION""""File Section""; ""Working-Storage Section""; ""Data Hierarchy""; ""PROCEDURE DIVISION""; ""Shortest COBOL Program""; ""COBOL Coding Rules""; ""Name Construction""; ""Comments about Naming""; ""Comments about Program Formatting""; ""Comments about Programming Style""; ""Example Programs""; ""The COBOL Greeting Program""; ""The DoCalc Program""; ""The Condition Names Program""; ""Chapter Exercise""; ""Where to Get a COBOL Compiler""; ""Micro Focus Visual COBOL""; ""OpenCOBOL""; ""Raincode COBOL""; ""Compileonline COBOL""; ""Fujitsu NetCOBOL""; ""Summary""; ""References""
""Chapter 3: Data Declaration in COBOL""""Categories of Program Data""; ""COBOL Literals""; ""Alphanumeric Literals""; ""Numeric Literals""; ""Data Items (Variables)""; ""Data Type Enforcement""; ""Figurative Constants""; ""Elementary Data Items""; ""Declaring Elementary Data Items""; ""PICTURE Clause Symbols""; ""PICTURE Clause Notes""; ""Example Declarations""; ""Assignment in COBOL""; ""The MOVE Verb""; ""MOVE Syntax""; ""MOVE Rules""; ""MOVE Combinations""; ""MOVE Examples""; ""Alphanumeric MOVEs""; ""Numeric MOVEs""; ""Example Set 1""; ""Example Set 2""; ""Structured Data""
""Group Data Items""
Includes index.
Beginning COBOL for Programmers is a comprehensive, sophisticated tutorial and modular skills reference on the COBOL programming language for established programmers. This book is for you if you are a developer who would like to—or must—add COBOL to your repertoire. Perhaps you recognize the opportunities presented by the current COBOL skills crisis, or are working in a mission critical enterprise which retains legacy COBOL applications. Whatever your situation, Beginning COBOL for Programmers meets your needs as an established programmer moving to COBOL. Beginning COBOL for Programmers includes comprehensive coverage of ANS 85 COBOL features and techniques, including control structures, condition names, sequential and direct access files, data redefinition, string handling, decimal arithmetic, subprograms, and the report writer. The final chapter includes a substantial introduction to object-oriented COBOL. Benefiting from over one hundred example programs, you’ll receive an extensive introduction to the core and advanced features of the COBOL language and will learn to apply these through comprehensive and varied exercises. If you've inherited some legacy COBOL, you’ll be able to grasp the COBOL idioms, understand the constructs, and recognize what's happening in the code you’re working with. Today’s enterprise application developers will find that COBOL skills open new—or old—doors, and this extensive COBOL reference is the book to help you acquire and develop your COBOL skills.
Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.
Programming languages (Electronic computers).
Software engineering.
Computer programming.
Programming Languages, Compilers, Interpreters.
Software Engineering/Programming and Operating Systems.
Programming Techniques.